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harvest – 30th september
I read that the Morey domaines of Dujac and L&A Lignier have completed their harvests today – Jeremy Seysses bemoans the fact that he only ended up with 25hl/ha for his villages Morey, though no quality complaints – actually a little white Monts-Luisants is still to be picked on Friday by Dujac. At the home domaine there were no new grapes, just the last of the Santenay from Wednesday to finish which was triaged in the morning – the grapes are fine at 6°C overnight! The last grapes to be brought in will be Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin and some Hautes-Côtes. Maybe tomorrow or maybe Saturday – let’s see. The first fermentations have started; the grapes from the new contract for villages Volnay were ‘innoculated’ via the [....]
cork isn’t ‘green’
http://www.asiancorrespondent.com/uncorked-and-cultivated/cullen-rebuff-puts-cork-off-anti-green Made me smile – in some ways!
harvest – 29th september
This was a very busy – but dry – day for the home team. Grapes from Maranges, Santenay villages, Vosne-Romanée and finally Corton Clos du Roi. Maranges and Vosne were in great shape (photos later) the Corton Clos du Roi and Santenay needed more triage. The Corton had a similar amount of botrytis to the Ladoix and the grapes could perhaps have been picked a day or two earlier – but we generally hold on because of the tannins. The Santenay needed green and rotten fruit removing. It’s worth noting that maximum triage this year (reds!) is still only in the region of 6-7% the average being much lower; only 05 and 09 have been better in the last 7 vintages. Short but sweet – [....]
winner mondial du monde – world best pinot – donatsch 2008 ‘passion’
So let’s try that champion du monde. Shame it was delivered just after I left for Beaune – it would have been good to open with the team. 2008 Donatsch, Pinot Noir ‘Passion’ [Switzerland] The nose needs a bit of time to open, but when it does there’s a small impression of chalky fruit, then a reasonably concentrated and high-toned raspberry, finally a forward brûlée (mainly vanilla) note. Actually the fruit/brûlée mix is quite nice. In the mouth it is round, very well textured – very smooth – and like the nose has lots of additional mid-palate dimension that is vanilla oak derived. It reminds me of a Beaune – actually a slightly fatter version of the very good 2007 Beaune 1er Blanche Fleurs from [....]
harvest – 28th september
(in absentia as I had to come home to do something less manual!) The last thing I did before I left yesterday was to taste through some of the different cuvées. Of-course it’s only fruit juice right now, and with so much sugar the pH of 3.2 means nothing! Still the colours seem to be extracting nicely and the flavours are very clean indeed – interesting that of the two (vinified separately) Volnay villages cuvées, one seemed more powerful, the other to have more complexity. Despite one needing more triage they both seem spotlessly clean – in the end I guess it’s just down to how much you have to throw away! Today was a dry day in the Côtes. The home team brought in [....]
harvest – 27th september
The previous evening was leftovers again, but this time supplemented with 2004 Puligny and 2002 Fourrier Gevrey Clos St.Jacques. The white had a very obvious 2004 character, the red was elegance personified – no fireworks but understated complexity. Today and it’s raining – not too heavy, but wet all the same. We have no grapes today; the Beaune Avaux and Corton Rognets was advanced and the Gevrey and Vosne were put back to tomorrow. Chambertin won’t be harvested until the end of the week. So in the morning I chatted with a couple of very similar vignerons (well, same village!) David Clark and Laurent Ponsot in Morey. I asked Laurent how his harvest was shaping up and he flashed a big smile and said “what [....]
harvest – 26th september
It’s Sunday, and surprise, surprise, it’s not raining. The previous evening we had a lovely soup (sorry chef it was better with a pinch of salt!) and the quenelles with a lobstery sauce – one of our antipodean colleagues decribed them as ‘French dumplings’ – a great call methinks! To drink was a 2008 Bourgogne Blanc from Domaine Dublère ‘Cuvée Millerandes‘ – very nice, indeed powerful, the acidity not quite seamless in the finish, but this was way above standard bourgogne level. For a bit of fun we tried the ‘cooking wine’ next; a Camille Giroud 1996 Monthélie – actually it was drinkable, blind you might think it smelled Italian as it spent so much time in oak. The last one was André Cathiard 1989 [....]
harvest – 25th september
For info, this year the Vougeraie harvest log is online – help yourself. So yesterday evening was leftovers and two grand crus, both from Camille Giroud; a 2007 Corton-Charlemagne and 2008 Charmes-Chambertin – both very good indeed as somebody might say, actually the Charlemagne could have been fine-plus! I mentioned yesterday the potential this year for a Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits divide, so lets get into that: It hangs on maturity and the weather. Much of the Côte de Beaune will have been harvested (we’re talking reds) by Monday and at decent maturity too. There is some rot, but few of the best sites have been significantly affected – grape quality was rather good, 2006++. Despite also having excellently clean grapes (still) the [....]
harvest – 24th September
So the night before and I open a bottle of Blair Pethel’s Domaine Dublère 2007 Beaune 1er Blanche Fleurs and watched James Bond on TV! The wine is really on-song, even the domestic management is appreciative – though I think a lot of the depth of flavour seems barrel-related (creamy vanilla dimensions), it has great texture, is slightly plush and generally shows lovely balance. Okay, that was yesterday – now I’m in Beaune, and just in time. Typically it started raining at home 3 minutes before I wanted to pack things into the car (…) most of the trip to Burgundy was dry though. Arriving to the car-park at the hotel it started with a little light rain. Five minutes after I got to the [....]
looking like a wet weekend in côtes…
Okay – the first full report will be tomorrow as I interrogate my fellow harvesters and stageurs – but it looks like I will be doing it wearing several layers of (waterproof!) clothing. The forecast for my weekend – how about yours(?)
presenting the world champion producer of pinot noir (2010)
Martin Donatsch from Weingut Donatsch in Malans, Graubunden (Grisons, Switzerland) has apparently won this year’s competition for “Champion du Monde des Producteurs du Pinot Noir” – the world champion among the pinot noir producers to you and me. The wine concerned was Martin’s 2008 Malanser Pinot Noir «Passion». No fewer than 1,100 wines were tasted in July by ‘an international jury’ in Sierre, Switzerland. 71 wines (6 percent) won gold medals and 260 won silver – even some French wines acheived a silver medal! I wonder how that percentage compares to the IWC(?) – I looked at the IWC site but it looked like I would have had to do lots of counting! Anyway I’ve bought a couple of bottles to see how it squares [....]
2004 rené engel grands-echézeaux
The back label of this bottle, Philippe Engel’s last vintage, has a poem from William Blake to toast him. 2004 Rene Engel, Grands-Echézeaux Medium ruby-red – I caught myself admiring the late-evening sun as it beautifully reflected through the glass. The nose is not immune to the vintage character; it starts at an encouragingly low level but disappointingly blooms in the glass – maybe to a 6/10 level. Below the mirepoix is a creamy, faintly lactic depth – and depth this wine certainly has. Wide in the mouth, the acidity has a slightly jarring, sharp leading edge – give it an hour of aeration and this mainly but not completely tones down. The texture is very fine and the width and depth are high-class indeed. [....]
